Cover News Reporter Chen Ganlu On February 25, the ITTF announced on its official website that the World Table Tennis Championships in Busan had to be postponed due to the new coronavirus epidemic, and the World Table Tennis Championships were postponed until before the Olympics,

cover news reporter Chen Ganlu

On February 25, the ITTF announced on its official website that the World Table Tennis Championships in Busan had to be postponed due to the new coronavirus epidemic, and the World Table Tennis Championships were postponed until before the Olympics, tentatively scheduled for June 21 The event will be held on the 28th.

The following is the text of the announcement:

In view of the current severe situation of the new coronavirus epidemic in South Korea, and out of consideration for the safety and health of players, staff, and fans, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has decided to postpone the event originally scheduled for The Hana Bank 2020 World Table Tennis Team Championship was held in Busan, South Korea from March 22nd to 29th.

Last Friday, the ITTF learned of reports of confirmed patients with the new coronavirus in Busan, where the event was held. Subsequently, ITTF senior management held an emergency meeting with representatives from the Korean Table Tennis Association and Busan City to discuss the situation of the Hana Bank 2020 Team World Table Tennis Championships. The

meeting made the following decisions, which have been approved by the ITTF Executive Committee and all parties in Busan:

1. Postponing the Team World Table Tennis Championships originally scheduled for March 22-29;

2. Tentatively postponed to The event will be held from June 21st to 28th; at the same time, we will pay close attention to the epidemic situation in the next few weeks;

In view of the uncertainty and variability of the current domestic epidemic situation in South Korea, the ITTF will ensure the health of players, staff, and fans. From the perspective of safety and security, the decision to postpone the event was made.

The postponed team World Table Tennis Championships schedule will conflict with the Korea Open and Australian Open. Currently, the ITTF is discussing and rescheduling with the organizing committees of the two events.

The ITTF sincerely thanks the Busan local organizing committee and the Korean Table Tennis Association led by Ryu Seung-min for their outstanding professionalism in responding to this emergency. The ITTF will continue to cooperate with all parties in Busan and is confident of delivering a grand World Table Tennis Championships in June.

The ITTF will provide further information once more information is available.

Previously, considering the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the Busan World Table Tennis Championships has announced the postponement of the draw ceremony, but has always stated that it will not postpone the game. Now, the official announcement to postpone the game is related to the surge in the number of people affected by the epidemic in a short period of time. According to a report from the South Korean Central Epidemic Prevention Countermeasures Headquarters, from 16:00 on the 24th to 9:00 on the 25th, South Korea had 60 new confirmed cases, bringing the total to 893. Among them, 731 confirmed cases are located in Daegu and Gyeongbuk areas, and more than half of the patients are related to the "Xintianji Church".

Currently, the national table tennis team is training in Doha, the capital of Qatar, to prepare for the Qatar Open to be held from March 3 to 8. The original plan of the national table tennis team was to go directly to South Korea to prepare for the Busan World Table Tennis Championships after the Qatar Open, and then go to Japan to prepare for the Olympic Games after the World Table Tennis Championships. Nowadays, there are variables in everything, and the specific arrangements of the national table tennis will also be based on the changes.

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